The Network examines aging as both a personal journey and a structural condition that defines modern societies. It explores how longevity, care, and participation intersect with equality, identity, and innovation. By linking empirical research and critical theory, it supports approaches that recognize aging not only as a stage of life but as a social process shaping the future of communities worldwide.
Annual meetings have been hosted by the University of California Berkeley (United States); the University of British Columbia (Canada); Linköping University (Sweden); Toyo University (Japan); the University of Vienna (Austria); Jagiellonian University (Poland); the Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy); and the University of Galway (Ireland).
Under the leadership of Founding Chair Sharon Wray (2011–2016) and Current Chair Andreas Motel-Klingebiel (2017–present), the Network has grown into a vibrant community with participants from over fifty countries. Each annual meeting extends this lineage, reinforcing the Network’s role as a catalyst for comparative and interdisciplinary research on the aging society.
The Journal of Aging and Social Change (founded 2018) and the Book Imprint further sustain this conversation, ensuring that insights from the Network’s gatherings contribute to lasting scholarly impact.
The Network is currently chaired by Professor Andreas Motel-Klingebiel (Linköping University, Sweden). The Founding Chair was Professor Sharon Wray (University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom), whose leadership established the Network’s commitment to inclusion, critical dialogue, and global reach. Together they have helped shape the Network as a leading interdisciplinary forum for research on aging and social change.
Current Chair and Editor
(2017 - )
Founding Chair and Editor
(2011-2016)
The Aging & Social Change Conference has a rich history of featuring leading and emerging voices from the field, including:
Director of Centre for Global Leadership, Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, USA
(2011)
Reader in Sociology, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK
(2012)
Director, Aging, Mobility, & Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
(2012)
Project Co-Director, The Greying of AIDS, New York City, USA
(2013)
Honorary Professor, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
(2014)
Executive Director, Midlands Community Development Corporation, Columbia, USA
(2015)
Professor, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
(2016)
Professor & Director, Centre for Ageing and Supportive Environments, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
(2016)
Acting Director, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology; Director, Project Lifecourse, Institute for Lifecourse and Society
(2017)
Professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work; The Norman and Honey Schipper Chair, Gerontological Social Work; Senior Scientist, Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Canada
(2019)
Over the years Aging & Social Change Research Network has had the pleasure of working with the following organizations:
